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He is 11 weeks old now and huge.

  • I was told his dam is german shepherd/timber wolf mix, she looks like classic german shepherd to me.
  • His sire was a husky/anatolian shepherd mix, but I did not see him.

His ears are beginning to straighten out and more often then not are fully up, his snout is also longer lit a shepherd. 3 of his siblings were blonde like the one in the picture, 2 were just like a German shepherd. There was one who closely resembled a catahula markings and then him...all the litter had medium coats, he still has his as well. Also his facial coloring have not changed.

Does anybody have any idea on what could cause this type of coloring in these breeds? I see the German shepherd, but I'm so confused on where the coloring comes from...

enter image description here enter image description here

Elmy
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Nikki
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1 Answers1

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Your dog's face markings are so cleanly split down the middle, even cleanly breaking patches of various color, which isn't really a normal thing for markings. It makes me wonder if it's a genetic chimera, which is a phenomenon caused by two different zygotes merging in the womb. The result is an animal showing two distinct phenotypes in different areas of its body. This is a phenomenon that's known to rarely happen in pets, or even human beings.

Though I've seen many images of chimera animals split down the middle, this is not necessarily how an animal that is a genetic chimera will look. Sometimes they have random areas of different phenotypes.

The only way to know for sure if this hypothesis is true is through genetic testing.

An example of a genetic chimera dog: enter image description here

Kai
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